This week on the AppleInsider podcast, Victor and Neil discuss Apple's continued work in artificial intelligence and cars, the rumored "iPhone 7s," and Neil's reviews of Powerbeats3 headphones and the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar.

The awaited "Super Mario Run" will be available in a few days, but the game's designer notes that for both "security" and gameplay reasons, the game requires a persistent internet connection to play that will consume 75 MB per hour or less on wireless.

Gene Munster, one of the most well known Apple analysts in the world, is leaving investment giant Piper Jaffray to start a venture capital firm specializing in AR/VR solutions, artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Thursday announced plans to mete out some $88 million to more than 2.7 million current and former AT&T customers who were affected by "mobile cramming," a scheme that added unwanted third-party service charges to their monthly phone bills.

Prices on Apple products are steadily rising as the holiday shopping season begins to wind down. But there's still time for shoppers to save between $250 and $550 on pre-orders for Apple's high-end 15" MacBook Pros with Touch Bar and AppleCare by combining our exclusive coupon codes with the benefit of no sales tax on out-of-state orders.

Prices on Apple products are steadily rising as the holiday shopping season begins to wind down. But there's still time for shoppers to save between $250 and $550 on orders for Apple's high-end 15" MacBook Pros with Touch Bar and AppleCare by combining our exclusive coupon codes with the benefit of no sales tax on out-of-state orders. A few configurations are in stock and ready to ship.

ChargePoint -- claiming to run the world's biggest network of EV charging stations -- on Thursday announced its addition to Apple Maps, letting Mac and iOS device owners quickly find a station if their electric car is beginning to run low.

Hot on the heels of Niantic teasing the addition of more creatures to capture, the Pokemon Go developer has announced deals with both Starbucks and Sprint, making stores from both companies in-game features.

Potentially beating Apple to the punch in some regards, Samsung's next flagship -- the Galaxy S8 -- will allegedly have an edge-to-edge, bezel-free display in all forms, and omit a physical home button in favor of a "virtual" one embedded in the glass.

Apple chip manufacturing partner TSMC is in the early stages of planning a $15.7 billion microchip fabrication plant, in an effort to glean more business from from Apple and other companies needing advanced chip designs.

Stars John Hodgman, Justin Long and the ad team responsible for Apple's 'Mac vs. PC' campaign -- launched in conjunction with the Intel Mac -- recently got together and talked about the evolution of the concept, other celebrity ad campaigns proposed and scuttled, and the difficulties of working with perfectionist Steve Jobs.

Nintendo's highly-anticipated "Super Mario Run" will be available to all users on Dec. 15, but until then, people anxious to play the game can head to an Apple Store for a few minutes of hands-on time with the title.

In one of the first pieces of documentation proving Apple's investigation into autonomous vehicles, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday published a patent application describing a basic collision avoidance system that could one day serve as the underpinnings of a self-driving car telemetry solution.

An Apple invention published Thursday fleshes out the folding iPhone concept revealed in a separate patent grant last week, adding features like a wraparound display and touch sensitive structures to all external surfaces.

Apple on Wednesday appeared in Chinese court to defend its iPhone 6 from patent infringement charges leveled by now insolvent tech firm Shenzhen Baili, arguing that the Beijing Intellectual Property Office defied legal convention in its decision to ban sales of the device.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group officially ratified the Bluetooth 5 standard on Wednesday, meaning Apple's next iPhone and iPad models could boast wireless accessory connectivity up to four times faster than the current specification at double the range.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group officially ratified the Bluetooth 5 standard on Wednesday, meaning Apple's next iPhone and iPad models could boast wireless accessory connectivity up to four times the distance of current specification devices at double the speed.

A report on Wednesday claims Apple is in late-stage talks with the National Hockey League to bring iPads and supporting backend infrastructure to team benches, a deal similar to one struck with Major League Baseball earlier this year.

Although technically refusing to repatriate its international revenue to avoid taxes, Apple is actually keeping much of it in the U.S. in the form of bonds -- and generating interest in the process, a report pointed out on Wednesday.

Apple has been attacked throughout the year for failing to jump on the Virtual Reality headset bandwagon following Facebook, Samsung, Google, HTC, Microsoft, Sony and others. Yet after a year of hype, VR headsets remain a niche that's failing to live up to even conservative expectations.

Contrary to recent predictions, a report on Wednesday claims the biggest changes coming to Apple's next-generation iPhone models are an upgraded "A11" SoC and new red color option, with the forthcoming handset likely to carry over the design language introduced with iPhone 7.

Wireless carrier T-Mobile has started a beta of Digits -- a service that allows multiple phone numbers to be utilized in conjunction on one device, or one phone number to be shared across multiple devices on a carrier-level. The company recommends, however, that beta participants disable iMessage while using it.

In an invitation-only meeting at Tuesdays Neural Information Processing Systems conference, Apple's head of machine learning broke down Apple's specific goals for its artificial intelligence developments, and detailed where it feels it has an advantage of its competitors, giving a rare look at Apple's research process.

Shoppers this week can snap up instant savings plus free expedited shipping and no tax outside NY on iPad Pros and MacBooks (with savings of up to $150). First-gen Apple Watch Sport models are also marked down starting at $199 and select Late 2016 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar systems are in stock and ready to ship.

Apple has recently made changes to its service scheduling process, and is now allowing users to make appointments with certified third parties and the remaining Apple Specialists for repair and support.

New research data shows that Apple's iOS saw a significant sales percentage boost with the release of the iPhone 7 family, with year-over-year sales growth in a three-month measurement period ending in October.

New details about Fitbit's buyout of Pebble have emerged, namely that the deal is more about acquiring software and talent the company needs to fight Apple in the wearable arena, and less about the Pebble product line.

Apple's primary assembly partner, Foxconn, will soon invest in expanding its U.S. operations, the latter company said on Wednesday, apparently following in the steps of a similar SoftBank announcement.

Users delving into the latest macOS 10.12.2 beta have discovered strings aligning with potential support for a trio of new GPU families in future hardware -- a refreshed Polaris 10, the unknown Polaris 12, and the Vega 10 series.

Apple on Tuesday unveiled its "Best of" selections for 2016, highlighting the year's most popular apps, TV shows, movies, e-books and other content sold across the company's various digital storefronts.

After picking up technology and staff from defunct streaming service Rdio in 2015, streaming music giant Pandora on Tuesday officially announced its own on-demand product that will take on Apple Music and Spotify when it launches next year.